French air traffic controllers launched a two-day strike on Thursday to protest understaffing and "toxic management", disrupting travel for tens of thousands of people in Europe at the start of a busy summer holiday season. Hundreds of flights have been cancelled in France, with the strike by two French unions also affecting air traffic across western Europe.
Half of all flights in Nice, France's third-largest airport, and a quarter of flights at Paris Orly and Paris Charles de Gaulle, one of Europe's busiest hubs, have been cancelled. Disruption is expected to worsen on Friday, the eve of the school holidays. "We're trying to stay positive, there are worse things, but it's annoying," Nadia Rivet, a 51-year-old bank employee, told AFP.
Rivet was planning to spend six days in the French capital but her flight from the southwestern city of Pau on Thursday morning was cancelled. "Everyone has the right to strike, but it's punitive. Air traffic controllers aren't the worst off," she said, adding she hoped to have more luck on Friday. The DGAC civil aviation authority has asked airlines to cancel some of their flights to ensure there are enough controllers on duty.
Ryanair, Europe's largest airline, said Thursday it was forced to cancel 170 flights, affecting 30,000 passengers. "Once again European families are held to ransom by French air traffic controllers going on strike," said Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary. The airline pointed out that most disrupted passengers were not flying to or from France but overflying French airspace.
"It makes no sense and is abundantly unfair on EU passengers and families going on holidays," O'Leary said. He urged European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen to take "urgent action" to protect overflights, among other reforms. Airlines for Europe (A4E), an industry association which includes Ryanair, Air France-KLM, Lufthansa, British Airways and EasyJet, described the action as "intolerable".
According to sources, 270 air traffic controllers out of a total workforce of around 1,400 went on strike. UNSA-ICNA, the second biggest labour group in the sector, launched the action to demand better working conditions and more staff.
The union is protesting "chronic understaffing", the planned introduction of a clock-in system, outdated equipment and "toxic management practices that are incompatible with the requirements of calm and safety". It was joined by the third largest union, USAC-CGT. France's Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot called the unions' demands unacceptable". The main air traffic controllers' union, SNCTA, had no plans to join the strike.
Airports in the south were particularly hit, with 30 percent of flights cancelled in cities including Lyon, Marseille, and Montpellier. Air France said it had been "forced to adapt its flight schedule" without specifying the number of cancellations, but stressed that its long-haul network was not affected. On Friday, the situation is expected to become even more tense at Paris airports and Beauvais, where the DGAC has ordered a 40-percent reduction in the number of flights.
On Thursday morning, the Eurocontrol monitoring agency warned airlines of "significant" delays in the airspace managed by the air traffic control centres in Marseille, Brest and Reims. Some 29,000 commercial flights were scheduled for Thursday in Europe, said Eurocontrol. Business aviation, particularly in Nice and Le Bourget near Paris, has also been significantly affected, sources said.
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